Mutations
Mutations is the name for a set of modified gameplay modes, the first of which was released alongside the campaign, The Passing in Left 4 Dead 2. The Mutations are special game modes that were initially available for one week each before being retired, and replaced by a new Mutation each week following an announcement on the in-game Blog Post every Friday. Periodically, a poll was conducted for players to vote for their favorite Mutation, which returned the following week as an Encore Mutation, meaning it would re-appear the next week (See below for Encore Mutations). With the download of the Cold Stream DLC it is possible to choose what Mutation you get to play. All mutations were made freely available for play at any time on 07/24/2012. __toc__ Revealed Mutations There are over 20 different Mutations planned, and playable on all Left 4 Dead 2 Campaigns. So far, the following have been revealed on Valve's blog in the scheduled order along with their taglines: Console Commands To play any Mutation without it being up for that week on the PC version of Left 4 Dead 2, activate the console and type in: :map map filename mutation-name The map filename is any of the maps in the game, or a custom map. Replace mutation-name with a command from below: So, for example, to play Dead Center with the Ironman Mutation, type into the console: :map c1m1_hotel mutation8 A menu mod exists that simplifies this, as well as enabling lobbies.http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1529433 Note: You cannot play multiplayer using this method. Unrevealed Mutations WARNING: Spoilers. The following were found in a Steam-Group annoucement and have not been seen in a schedule as of yet. They can also be found amongst the game's script files. As they have not been announced by Valve yet, they may still be subject to changes or removal. Strategies Realism Versus Bleed Out Follow the Liter Last Gnome on Earth Last Man on Earth Chainsaw Massacre Room for One Headshot! Versus Survival Four Swordsmen Hard Eight Healthpackalypse! Gib Fest Iron Man Taaannnkk! Hunting Party Lone Gunman Healing Gnome Encores and Developer's Choice In 2010, after every four or five weeks, Valve would announce an encore week in which the community vote for a Mutation to be replayed. Only recent Mutations that have been played may be voted for. Alternatively, the developers would choose to replay one of their chosen Mutations for a week as a "Developer's Choice". The following encore weeks re-showcased the following Mutations: * Friday, May 21st (week 5) had Last Gnome on Earth return for another week. * Friday, June 25th (week 10) had Chainsaw Massacre reappear. On the Xbox 360, it led with 43% of the votes. However it was much more close on the PC. Chainsaw Massacre won by 1%, specifically 500 more votes, than the second most voted PC Mutation: Headshot!. * Friday, July 30th (week 15) had a split vote. For the PC, Versus Survival won by 6% more than Four Swordsmen. However, on the Xbox 360, Four Swordsmen won by 10% more than Versus Survival. * Friday, August 20th (week 18) had developers choosing Last Man On Earth to be replayed for one week on both PC and Xbox 360. * Friday, August 27th (week 19) had a split vote. For the PC, Gib Fest won by 5% more than Versus Survival. However, on the Xbox 360, Chainsaw Massacre won by 5% more than Gib Fest. * Friday, September 3rd (week 20) had developers choosing Hard Eight to be replayed for one week on both PC and Xbox 360. * Friday, September 10th (week 21) had developers choosing Follow The Liter to be replayed for one week on both PC and Xbox 360. * Friday, September 17th (week 22) had developers choosing Healthpackalypse! to be replayed for one week on both PC and Xbox 360. * Friday, September 24th (week 23) had developers choosing Versus Survival to be replayed for two weeks on both PC and Xbox 360, as the team will be busy 'working on their infrastructure'. * Friday, November 12th had Taaannnkk! reappear out of the five new Mutations, leading with a overwhelming majority vote of 51% on XBox 360 (second highest vote was Hunting Party with 17%), and 47% on PC (second highest was Healing Gnome with 17%). Achievements & Awards :See Main Article: Achievements Notes *Week 2 of the In-Game blog made a poll, asking if Realism Versus should have a permanent slot in the game modes. Due to majority votes, Realism Versus is now a permanent game mode. * The Mutation Bleed Out was previously bugged, as on The Passing, the original Survivors would sometimes throw first aid kits down to the new Survivors during the finale The Port. Although this was quickly patched by Valve in the 30th April update, the bug is still currently active on the Xbox 360 version of Left 4 Dead 2. ** Furthermore, if in a black and white state after being incapacitated, taking pain pills will return color, but the heartbeat (signifying emergency state on Third Strike) can still be heard. * The Mutation Last Gnome on Earth may be slightly buggy. When you play Dark Carnival, on the second chapter, you can obtain a second Gnome Chompski from the shooting gallery and progress through the whole campaign with two gnomes, who are treated the same as each other (Common and Uncommon Infected will equally go after the gnome carriers), yet when on your last "life" i.e. seeing in monochrome, only one of these will be outlined. This has yet to be patched, if it is a bug. ** Getting any gnome into the rescue vehicle counts for the Guardin' Gnome achievement if not obtained already. You can even start the game at The Concert, then play through to get this achievement. ** When you are playing Dead Center on the the first chapter, make sure you hold the gnome in the elevator, if not he will fall right through the floor and become unreachable. ** This can also happen on the ferry on Swamp Fever, as the gnome falls through the wood and lands in the insta-kill water. * In the Mutation Last Man on Earth, the guns in Whitaker's Gunshop are different. Where the Pump Shotguns and Submachine Guns usually are, their Tier 2 replacements will occupy their space instead. ** In the Atrium after you have finished pouring the gas cans and escaped, the Common Infected appear outside. ** It is possible to play The Sacrifice in Last Man on Earth. However, this makes the finale rather illogical, because at the end you still sacrifice yourself, which doesn't save anyone. ** Many of the cutscenes are messed up because the other Survivors are not there to act or speak their lines. ** You are not exactly the "Last Man on Earth", since the rescuers are still heard talking through the radios in some campaigns. The drivers of the rescue vehicles still can be seen. * In the Mutation Chainsaw Massacre, on The Passing's finale the original Survivors will be using Pistols instead of their normal Tier 2 weapons. Louis, however, continues to use the Heavy Machine Gun. ** This mode is currently bugged. Similar to the Bleed Out Mutation bug during The Passing on the finale (see above note), the original Survivors may occasionally throw down Tier 2 weapons (including the M60) to the new Survivors during the finale The Port, letting Survivors fight with a Chainsaw and firearm. ** During this Mutation it is possible to find other primary weapons in the campaign - for example in Hard Rain's second stage Sugar Mill, at the safe room where the diesel gas cans are, there is a single Pump Shotgun on the ground. As the gun is loaded to its maximum capacity, it can serve as a backup weapon for dealing with Boomers and Spitters. As the Mutation is meant to be revolved around using the Chainsaw or Pistols you begin with (since no firearms or ammo piles spawn generally), this is a bug. ** Laser sights will still spawn in this mode, but they are unusable since you have no primary weapons. The only exceptions are when you obtain a primary weapon via the bugs described above. * In the Mutation Room for One, playing the whole finale will get you the campaign achievement if you don't have it. Even if you're not the one to make it into the rescue vehicle, you will still get the achievement as long as you are alive when the campaign ends. For example, making it into the Dark Carnival helicopter, and getting MIDNIGHT RIDER. ** In the Hard Rain finale, Town Escape, if a Survivor jumps from the flat level dock and not the inclined ramp onto the boat, that Survivor will live but NOT be counted as the winner. The Survivor that jumps from the inclined ramp is the winner even though the ending animation might show otherwise. This may be a bug. * In the Mutation Headshot!, Common Infected may occasionally be decapitated, and still continue to move about until hit in the head area to finish the kill. ** When incapacitated, shooting Common Infected anywhere translates into an instant headshot, so fending yourself when incapacitated is actually easier. ** When a Common Infected is killed with a Frying Pan or Nightstick, it doesn't lose its head. ** Riot Infected are extremely hard to kill in this Mutation as they have to be shot/decapitated from the back of the head. ** The update for the Mutation Headshot! has not been obtainable by a lot of Xbox 360 owners of the game (if not hooked up by LAN connection to their modem). After they start up the game and get to the main menu, the Blog Post from week 1 of Mutations will be shown there, and Realism Versus will not have its usual permanent slot, but it will be available under the Mutation slot. Reasons for this are so far unknown, though it's most likely due to a bug or the connection to the servers. Additionally, the date of the Blog Post will say March 23rd, 2010, despite that the original date of The Passing's official released date was on April 22nd, 2010. * In the Mutation Four Swordsmen, unlike Chainsaw Massacre, Survivors immediately start the campaign with Katanas in hand. However, the cutscene played at the start of each campaign was designed for the Survivors to have the Pistol in their hands, so there may be some slight animation errors in how they hold the Katana with their pistol grips. This is immediately fixed as soon as players control the Survivors, as they will hold the Katana normally afterwards. Also, if killed and revived from a closet, you will start with a pistol, likewise if a Survivor dies and re-appears in the saferoom. ** The Mutation Four Swordsmen appears as that name in the Mutation in-game option, but on the update and Blog Post (in-game as well as website blog), the Mutation is known by the longer name Four Swordsmen of the Apocalypse. It is unknown why Valve chose to use longer and shorter variations of the Mutation's name rather than sticking with one single name. ** On Swamp Fever, at The Swamp, just after the hanging military man in the trees, a Magnum and a Katana can be found at the small wooden dock. If Survivors wish to break the theme of 'swords only', the Magnum can be handy for dealing with Special Infected at range. As the Katana is meant to be the only weapon for use in this Mutation, this is considered to be a bug. ** Similar to Chainsaw Massacre, it is possible to find other primary weapons in the campaign - for example in Hard Rain's second stage Sugar Mill, at the safe room where the diesel gas cans are, there is a single Pump Shotgun on the ground. As the gun is loaded to its maximum capacity, it can serve as a backup weapon for dealing with Special Infected from a distance, or for killing Witches by cr0wning them. As this Mutation is meant to be revolved around using only the Katana, this is a bug. ** Laser sights will still spawn in this mode, but they are unusable since you have no primary weapons. The only exceptions are when you obtain a primary weapon via the bugs described above. * In the Mutation Gib Fest, during The Passing, the original Survivors are still capable of dropping laser-sighted M60s. Though the M60 drop itself is pointless, it's still useful for its laser sight (given that the Survivors have not obtained laser sights beforehand). * Also, in some campaigns (though rarely) like the'' Left 4 Dead 2'' port of Death Toll or Cold Stream Tier 2 weapons may ''still spawn. Such as one-Combat Shotguns at the beginning of South Pine Stream or Auto Shotguns during the escape from the Sugar Mill. ** It is possible, but extremely rare, to find a Grenade Launcher in certain Gib Fest Campaigns. As the Grenade Launcher was ever only coded to have one shot per magazine, this results in the grenade launcher having almost no cooldown between shots (it can fire as soon as the coding for infinite ammo kicks in and replaces its expended shot). ** The inverse can happen when playing on Cold Stream. The players and bots will spawn with their standard weapons, and may get a choice between a submachine gun variant and a pump shotgun variant, with a few secondary weapons spawning nearby. However survivors will not get access to the M60, even if killed and revived. It is possible that the above glitch may happen and spawn a M60 or a Grenade Launcher in certain areas. * Similar to '''Chainsaw Massacre' and Four Swordsmen, it is possible to find other primary weapons - for example in Hard Rain's second stage Sugar Mill, at the safe room where the diesel gas cans are, there is a single Pump Shotgun on the ground. As this gun has unlimited ammunition too, it can serve as a replacement for the M60. As this Mutation is meant to be revolved around using only M60's and Magnums, this is a bug. * In the Mutation Iron Man, it is still possible to find, and also use, Defibrillators. Though this Mutation states that once you die, you're dead permanently, and yet there are still Defibrillators that you can find and use, this might be a bug, but is not completely certain, as the Mutation is based on Realism rules, which allow Defibrillators to revive Survivors. ** The in-game tagline description of the Mutation Iron Man does not mention "no ammo". It just states no respawns, no restarts, all tension, unlike the Blog Post (in-game and web blog) which states no respawns, no restarts, no ammo, all tension. ** The in-game tagline description of the Mutation Iron Man says that there are no respawns and yet after Survivors make it to the saferoom, all dead Survivors are respawned. This may either be for gameplay balance or a bug. * The Mutation Versus Survival has also been addressed officially by Valve in the blog as Survival Versus. It is unclear which name has overall precedence, as Valve makes use of both names. The Mutation name as it appears when selecting the game mode, however, is Versus Survival. * The Mutation Taaannnkk! has also been addressed officially by Valve in the blog as TAAANNNKK!! (in all capital letters and two exclamation marks), as well as Taaannnkk!! (with two exclamation marks instead of one). It is unclear which name has overall precedence, as Valve makes use of all three names. The Mutation name as it appears when selecting the game mode, however, is Taaannnkk!. ** Sometimes, Tank players may spawn in an area where it is impossible for them to reach the Survivors due to no climbable walls. This is a bug. ** Tanks spawn with half the amount of health they would normally get in a Versus game (3000 instead of 6000). This is to balance the number of simultaneous Tanks, giving the Survivors a small chance of survival. ** Tank spawns can sometimes be unfortunate to the Survivors as it is possible for Tanks to spawn in the same general area (room, hallway, saferoom, ect.). It is possible that Tank spawns are based on the line of sight of the survivors. This can be deadly to players who are not familiar with The Apartment of No Mercy as it is possible for Tanks to spawn directly by a Survivor. ** Unlike Versus mode, this Mutation only spawns Tanks equal to the amount of players on the Infected team. ** Despite the description saying "Every Special Infected in this Versus game is a Tank!", Witches can still spawn which may be unfortunate for the Survivors if one spawns in their path. * In the Mutation Hunting Party, Tanks and Witches will still spawn. * In the Mutation Lone Gunman, items such as Laser sights, Defibrillators, ammo upgrades, an extra magnum, and ammo piles will spawn even if they cannot not be used. ** Despite the tagline saying only the horde and Boomers spawning, Tanks and Witches will still spawn. ** On The Sacrifice at Port Finale, the final generator still has to be restarted, but due to the nature of the Mutation, nobody needs to be left on the bridge in order to restart the generator to complete the campaign. ** The picture for Lone Gunman has an Beretta 92, yet there is no Beretta 92 in the game. * In the Mutation Healing Gnome, as the Survivor Bots cannot hold throwable items, they will have no methods of healing. ** As can be seen in this video at about five minutes and forty-eight seconds, in Swamp Fever's Plank Country, you can shoot a gnome off of the sign allowing you to have two gnomes. * In the Mutation Last Man on Earth, despite the mutation only allowing you to be incapped once ''without First Aid, the gamemodes.txt file doesn't have "sv_max_incapacitated_count" set to "1". * Some of the Mutation names along with their taglines appear to be based on certain themes, imagery, or others: ** '''Chainsaw Massacre' is likely a reference to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. ** Iron Man is likely derived from the Ironman Triathlon, in terms of how grueling the mode will be (Ironman Triathlons have a mantra where "just finishing is a victory"). A number of other games, such as Halo 3, also have modes based on the name. ** Four Swordsmen (along with its longer name Four Swordsmen of the Apocalypse), along with its tagline Four Swords against plenty of apocalypse!, is a play on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the last book of the New Testament of the Bible. It could also be a reference to The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords, though this is unlikely. ** Last Man on Earth, along with its tagline You will become legend to the infected as the last human left., is a reference to the novel I Am Legend and its related film adaptations, where the protagonist is (what he believes) the last surviving human in a world full of infected beings (in this case, vampires, who he quickly becomes a legendary monster to). The title is derived from the Italian movie The Last Man on Earth (L'ultimo uomo della Terra), which was based on the I Am Legend novel. *** With the infected beings in the novel and film adaptations being vampires, this might also lead into Francis' mistaken belief that the Infected are vampires due to their similar behavior, aggression, and running speed, in comparison to stereotypical film zombies which move at a lumbering pace. **** The name of the mutation may also be based on Zoey's cut line from the old versions of the Left 4 Dead intro, where Bill would wipe the puke off on Francis's vest after being asked if she's interested in Francis's "improvement". ** Bleed Out is a colloquial term for exsanguination, the fatal process of total blood loss. It is more commonly known as "bleeding to death". It is also a reference to a Survivor bleeding out to death if left incapacitated for too long. ** The Last Samurai may be named after the movie of the same name, where the protagonist is armed with just a sword against superior odds. The protagonist in the movie, however, was only alone in terms of racial group. ** Flu Season takes the two Special Infected whose special attacks are analogous with the biological illnesses associated with the flu (in this case, vomiting). Along with the timing, "flu season" is commonly associated with winter, which is when the Mutation happened to take place. * Some achievements may be easier to earn on some Mutations. Examples include: ** BRIDGE OVER TREBLED SLAUGHTER (Chainsaw Massacre, Last Man on Earth, Four Swordsmen, Room for One, Gib Fest) ** CHAIN OF COMMAND (Chainsaw Massacre) ** CONFEDERACY OF CRUNCHES (Chainsaw Massacre, Four Swordsmen, The Last Samurai) ** GUARDIN' GNOME (Last Gnome on Earth) ** PRICE CHOPPER, TORCH BEARER, MIDNIGHT RIDER, RAGIN' CAJUN, WEATHERMAN, BRIDGE BURNER (Room for One) ** STILL SOMETHING TO PROVE (Last Man On Earth, The Last Samurai, Room for One, Four Swordsmen, Gib Fest) ** SOB STORY (Last Man on Earth, The Last Samurai, Lone Gunman) ** TANK BURGER (Chainsaw Massacre, Last Man on Earth, Four Swordsmen, The Last Samurai) ** TIL IT GOES CLICK (Gib Fest) ** VIOLENCE IN SILENCE (Last Man on Earth, The Last Samurai) ** HEAD HONCHO (Headshot!) * Although Realism Versus has become a permanent game mode, playing it counts towards the MUTANT OVERLORD achievement, if not already obtained. * Even on a Mutation that excludes Common Infected, they can occasionally be seen milling about idly on various stages. Additionally, custom campaigns that force Common Infected spawns will still result in encountering aggressive groups of them in these Mutations. * Chainsaw Massacre, Versus Survival, and Gib Fest are currently the most repeated Mutations, having appeared three times altogether as of November 19th 2010. Chainsaw Massacre and Gib Fest have returned via encores, while Versus Survival has returned via Developer's Choice and an encore. ** The weeks Chainsaw Massacre has appeared in are: *** Friday June 4th 2010 (initial appearance, Week 7) *** Friday June 25th 2010 (first encore, Week 10) *** Friday August 27th 2010 (second encore, Xbox 360 only, Week 19) ** Versus Survival: *** Friday July 2nd 2010 (initial appearance, Week 11) *** Friday July 30th 2010 (encore, PC only, week 15) *** Friday September 24th 2010 (developer's choice, week 23) ** Gib Fest: *** Friday August 6th 2010 (initial appearance, Week 16) *** Friday August 27th 2010 (encore, PC only, Week 19) *** Friday November 19th 2010 (second encore) * The mutation Special Delivery was previously bugged. If a player played the mutation with bot-controlled Srvivors, sometimes the bots may disappear completely. This would remove the in-game character, the health meter at the bottom of the screen and the health meter in the side menu for the remainder of the campaign. Since then Valve has fixed it in the community1.nuc file, preventing this bug from ever happening again. Gallery bleedout.jpg|Bleed Out followliter.jpg|Follow The Liter lastgnomeonearth.jpg|Last Gnome On Earth Last Man.png|Last Man On Earth Chainsaw massacre.jpg|Chainsaw Massacre Room4one.jpg|Room For One Headshot mutation.png|Headshot! Versus.png|Versus Survival Swordsmen.jpg|Four Swordsmen Hard8.jpg|Hard Eight Healthpacks.jpg|Healthpackalypse! Gibs.png|Gib Fest Ironman.png|Iron Man tank_mutation.jpg|Taaannnkk! Hunting_party_mutation.jpg|Hunting Party Lone gunman.jpg|Lone Gunman Bleed_out_versus.jpg|Bleed Out Versus Healing_gnome.jpg|Healing Gnome Special_delivery.jpg|Special Delivery Flu-season.jpg|Flu Season RidingMySurvivors.jpg|Riding My Survivor nightmare.jpg|Nightmare Deaths_door.jpg|Death's Door Lastsamurai.png|Last Samurai (Taken from the game's files) Confogl.png|Confogl Videos L4D fan''' [http://www.youtube.com/user/RustyWoud Rusty Woud '']' ''has a Youtube channel based around gameplay videos for L4D and has also compiled video walkthroughs for many of the Mutations: '''New HQ Videos:' Single/Co-op Mutations: * Last Man On Earth - Dead Center * Hunting Party - Dark Carnival * Gib Fest - *Expert* Hard Rain * Healing Gnome - Dead Center * Lone Gunman - Swamp Fever * Headshot! - The Parish * Versus Survival - The Parish (Bus Depot) * Versus Survival - Swamp Fever (Plantation) * Gib Fest - *Expert* Dark Carnival * Hard Eight - Dead Center * Four Swordsmen - Swamp Fever Versus Mutations: * Bleed Out Versus * Taaaaaannkk! Older Videos: * Taaannnk!! - Hard Rain * Hunting Party - Swamp Fever * Lone Gunman - The Parish * Gib Fest - The Parish * Special Delivery - Dead Center * Nightmare - Swamp Fever (Plantation) * Nightmare - Hard Rain (Sugar Mill) * Hard Eight - The Parish * Bleed Out - The Passing * Follow the Liter - Dark Carnival (Motel) Category:The Passing Category:Left 4 Dead 2 Category:Gameplay Modes